The next major change in the fortunes of Waitrose was the result of the move to self service shopping in the early 1950s. The first shops to become self service were Schofield & Martin, a small chain of grocery shops based around Southend. By 1955 Waitrose opened it's first supermarket in Streatham with 2,500 square feet of selling space. By the early 1970s there were 50 branches, some still small self service shops but more and more larger supermarkets. This led to the construction of a new distribution centre at Bracknell enabling the business to grow at a much faster rate.